Are you a 20-something woman, lucky enough to be gainfully employed, but feel like you’re already burning out? If so, you’re not alone.
According to a recent study, the Millennial generation has a greater risk of developing mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression, than their parents’ generation did, reported Business Insider. And Gen-Y (born after 1982) women may have it even worse than Gen-Y men as they struggle to create some semblance of work-life balance, the site claims. Even though these women have a greater sense of equality in the workplace than those who came before them there still seems to be a distinct gender gap when it comes to caring for one’s personal needs while maintaining a full-time job. Both Forbes and Business Insider have run pieces on the alleged “burnout syndrome” plaguing women before they hit 30.
Data gathered by Accenture this month shows that despite seeing female role models in the workplace and feeling equal, women are still far less likely to advocate for themselves. Over a quarter of Gen-Y women don’t discuss their career development with their bosses, 47 percent feel that a lack of opportunities are holding their careers back, and only 45 percent have asked for a raise as opposed to 61 percent of Gen-Y men.
HuffPost Women spoke to Rachel Simmons, author of “The Curse of the Good Girl: Raising Authentic Girls with Courage and Confidence,” about the subject of workplace stress and how young women deal with it. “Stress is a big issue for girls and young women right now, in part because of the increasing expectation that women be all things to all people,” she said. “They’re expected to be really smart and hardworking and also have a great body, a successful partner relationship and be a great parent, sister or daughter. The sum of those responsibilities is crushing.”
Unfortunately, women do little to mitigate office stress. Forbes reported that women were far less likely than men to take breaks during work hours, go out to lunch or go take a walk, perhaps a symptom of Type-A personalities and subsequent guilt about leaving their desks. But Simmons says that it’s precisely these breaks and room for social networking that can create the opportunities for career growth that Millennial women say they’re lacking. “A lot of female professionals feel that hard work will be rewarded and that networking is false or inauthentic, when in fact hard work is often not rewarded without the privilege you earn through those breaks with your colleagues,” she told The Huffington Post.
Do you feel like you’re burning out at work? Let us know in the comments!